Members of the Swiss federal army's honor guard in October 2012. REUTERS/Thomas Hodel

Switzerland hasn't had a mass shooting since 2001, when a man stormed the local parliament in Zug, killing 14 people and then himself.

The country has about 2 million privately owned guns in a nation of 8.3 million people. In 2016, the country had 47 attempted homicides with firearms. The country's overall murder rate is near zero.

The National Rifle Association often points to Switzerland to argue that more rules on gun ownership aren't necessary. In 2016, the NRA said on its blog that the European country had one of the lowest murder rates in the world while still having millions of privately owned guns and a few hunting weapons that don't even require a permit.

But the Swiss have some specific rules and regulations for gun use.

Business Insider took a look at the country's past with guns to see why it has lower rates of gun violence than the US, where gun death rates are now at their highest in more than 20 years.

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Switzerland is obsessed with getting shooting right. Every year, it holds a shooting contest for kids aged 13 to 17.

In recent years, the Swiss government has voted to reduce the size of the country's armed forces.

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Switzerland is a bit like a well-designed fort.

Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

Switzerland's borders are basically designed to blow up on command, with at least 3,000 demolition points on bridges, roads, rails, and tunnels around the landlocked European country.

John McPhee put it this way in his book "La Place de la Concorde Suisse":

"Near the German border of Switzerland, every railroad and highway tunnel has been prepared to pinch shut explosively. Nearby mountains have been made so porous that whole divisions can fit inside them."

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Roughly a quarter of the gun-toting Swiss use their weapons for military or police duty.

AP/Keyston, Lukas Lehmann

In 2000, more than 25% of Swiss gun owners said they kept their weapon for military or police duty, while less than 5% of Americans said the same.

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In addition to the militia's arms, the country has about 2 million privately owned guns — a figure that has been plummeting over the past decade.

Members of an honor guard of the Swiss army.
REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

The Swiss government has estimated that about half of the privately owned guns in the country are former service rifles. But there are signs the Swiss gun-to-human ratio is dwindling.

In 2007, the Small Arms Survey found that Switzerland had the third-highest ratio of civilian firearms per 100 residents (46), outdone by only the US (89) and Yemen (55).

But it seems that figure has dropped over the past decade. It's now estimated that there's about one civilian gun for every four Swiss people.

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Gun sellers follow strict licensing procedures.

Daniel Wyss, the president of the Swiss weapons-dealers association, in a gun shop.
REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

Swiss authorities decide on a local level whether to give people gun permits. They also keep a log of everyone who owns a gun in their region, known as a canton, though hunting rifles and some semiautomatic long arms are exempt from the permit requirement.

But cantonal police don't take their duty dolling out gun licenses lightly. They might consult a psychiatrist or talk with authorities in other cantons where a prospective gun buyer has lived before to vet the person.

As of 2015, the Swiss estimated that only about 11% of citizens kept their military-issued gun at home.

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Most people aren't allowed to carry their guns around in Switzerland.

Hunters at a market in central Switzerland offer their fox furs.
REUTERS

Concealed-carry permits are tough to get in Switzerland, and most people who aren't security workers or police officers don't have one.

"We have guns at home, but they are kept for peaceful purposes," Martin Killias, a professor of criminology at Zurich University, told the BBC in 2013. "There is no point taking the gun out of your home in Switzerland because it is illegal to carry a gun in the street."

That's mostly true. Hunters and sports shooters are allowed to transport their guns only from their home to the firing range — they can't just stop off for coffee with their rifle.

And guns cannot be loaded during transport to prevent them from accidentally firing in a place like Starbucks — something that has happened in the US at least twice.